III 110th CONGRESS 2d Session S. RES. 553 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES May 6, 2008 Mr. Cardin (for himself and Ms. Mikulski) submitted the following resolution; which was considered and agreed to RESOLUTION Congratulating Charles County, Maryland, on the occasion of its 350th anniversary.

Whereas 2008 marks the 350th anniversary of the establishment of Charles County, Maryland, a historic and memorable event that will be commemorated throughout the year; Whereas Charles County was chartered in 1658 and named after Charles Calvert, a royal proprietor of the colony of Maryland; Whereas citizens of Charles County have played an important role in the history of Maryland and our Nation, including Thomas Stone, whose home is maintained by the National Park Service in Port Tobacco and who served as a Continental Congressman, a framer of the Articles of Confederation, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence; Whereas, under the Articles of Confederation, John Hanson, born in Port Tobacco, served as the President of the United States in Congress Assembled; Whereas Josiah Henson escaped slavery and fled from Charles County to Canada, where he wrote his autobiography, a narrative that later inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe’s famous novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin; Whereas Josiah Henson’s grandnephew, Matthew Henson, left Charles County farmland to become an arctic explorer, venturing to the North Pole and going on to receive international acclaim; Whereas, following the Civil War, the house of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd in Waldorf was where John Wilkes Booth stopped to have Dr. Mudd reset his leg, broken after he fatally shot President Abraham Lincoln and jumped off the balcony of Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC; Whereas today Charles County has roughly 120,000 residents; Whereas, while farming and small town life still flourish, particularly along the banks of the Potomac River, the population of the county is growing; and Whereas the county is home to workers in the National Capital region as well as the county’s largest employer, a Department of Defense Energetics Center, the Indian Head Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center: Now, therefore, be it

That the Senate— (a)commends and congratulates Charles County, Maryland, on the occasion of its 350th anniversary; and (b)requests the Secretary of the Senate to transmit an enrolled copy of this resolution to the Charles County Anniversary Committee as an expression of the Senate's best wishes for a glorious year of celebration.